Capeside Revisited:
Written by: Jeffrey Stepakoff
Directed by: Michael Lange
Original airdate: October 24, 2001
Synopsis:
Jen, Joey, and Audrey hang out at a local restaurant eating and chatting about Jen’s new beau Charlie, when Joey excuses herself for the restroom and happens to see Pacey working in the kitchen. Her and Jen talk about it, with Jen confessing she knew he was in town but not that he was working here. Jen tries to push Joey to talk to him, but Joey laments that if Pacey wanted to see her, he wouldn’t have asked Jen to keep his arrival a secret.
Elsewhere Jack talks with Blossom the frat guy and is introduced to another member named Polar Bear who offers his assistance with a class he is in. As Blossom introduces him to more and more people they are all acutely aware of Jack’s likes and dislikes, as Blossom explains that when the frat is interested in a new member, they learn everything they can about that candidate before offering them the chance to join.
Back at the restaurant, the waitress Karen is deriding Pacey for not wearing the hat that the cooks are supposed to be wearing, and despite Pacey’s best efforts at being charming and jokey, she just isn’t having it.
Jen heads over to Charlie’s after receiving a booty call from him earlier at the restaurant but tells him that this is not going to become a regular thing. Although Charlie is hot to trot, Jen tries to get some info out of him about his personal life but he keeps avoiding the question, something that has been bugging Jen lately. Eventually he reveals his home town before they settle in for some good old booty bumping.
Dawson, having decided to drop out of USC to hopefully attend a school in Boston, returns to Capeside to tell his parents his decision. They’re overjoyed to see him at first but when he reveals his choice, Gail tries to help him see the positive in his school choice, but Dawson presses on, claiming that he is a significant crossroads and that he needs to make this decision or he will always have regrets. Mitch is understandably cold to his decision and tells him he won’t be dropping out and that he can’t expect to be treated like an adult when his choice is to drop out of school and just crash on someone’s couch.
Audrey tries to discuss Pacey with Joey and tells her that Joey really seems to love school because of the rules, versus a relationship where the rules are out the window. She tells Joey that she is the kind of girl that guys don’t get over easily, and that relationships are messy, so in order to have one, you have to stop worrying about that mess.
Back at the frat house, Jack wakes up with a hangover and realizes that the frat guys wouldn’t let one of their own drive home drunk and is offered the letter of invitation to join. Jack opens up that he’s gay and Blossom says that that is ok because THAT is exactly why they wanted him in the house in the first place. The Dean told their frat that they needed to diversify and thus, invitations were made.
Back at Charlie’s, after the heat of the moment has passed, Jen tests him on his knowledge of her eye color which he just barely manages to pass, and again the subject of them not really knowing each other comes up. In order to try and make up for that lack of knowledge and to see what exact type of relationship they have, the two make a vow to go 12 hours without having sex.
Mitch goes to Dawson and tries to implore him to not drop out, making the point that he has always been a movie maker and has worked so hard to get where he is. Despite Dawson saying he is choosing his own path, Mitch counters that he is actually following Joey down her path, but Dawson disagrees, saying that he can’t live the life that Mitch wants for him and has to choose for himself. Mitch hands him a plane ticket for the following day, and tells him to seize this opportunity.
Later, Gail and Mitch talk about what’s been going on and reminisce about the good old days and how much he has missed his son, but content with his role as a family man, hoping that Dawson will go back to school and make the movies and create things that Mitch never really was cut out for himself.
Jen tries to find a movie that she and Charlie can go see but they disagree on which one to see, with Charlie specifically not wanting to see anything with subtitles. They may be arguing but Charlie points out the positive thing which is that they’re actually learning some stuff about each other.
Jack talks with Grams and tells her he is hesitant to join the frat because as Tobey says, they’re just ticking a box, but Jack also does feel at home there. Grams tells him that it seems as the issue isn’t really with an external force this time, but that this is actually Jack’s inner struggle to deal with, and that if the frat guys know Jack even 1/10 as well as she knows him, they want him for more than just filling a quota.
Gail talks with Dawson and asks if he is moving to Boston because of Joey and Dawson says it’s really that he has just figured out what following his heart means and aims to do that, despite people seemingly telling him it’s crazy to do so. Gail counters that people change and grow and to be sure that if he wants to go down this path with her, to be sure that he is going for the right reasons.
As Jen and Charlie continue ti try and ask each other personal questions and get to know each other, the conversation inevitably turns back to sex however they are out of condoms. Charlie takes her to the health office where they break in through a window and go to grab some of the free protection they offer, however Jen discovers that Charlie can’t read the sign because he is nearsighted.
Joey goes to confront Pacey in his boat and the two have a good conversation with Joey inviting him to the Sunday dinners at Grams’ house.
As Dawson prepares to leave home, he hands the ticket back to Mitch, telling him he hopes he can get a refund on it. Mitch tells him he thinks he’s making a big mistake but that he will still be here for him before walking out.
Jack goes to Blossom and tells him of his uneasiness about the quota idea, but he reassures Jack that it’s not JUST about the quota but that they do actually like him as a person as well. Jack warns them that his boyfriend will be showing up at some point too but Blossom says it’s fine, that that is what it means to be a brother, and with that, Jack becomes the newest member of Sigma Ep.
Back at the restaurant, Danny reveals that he has had Pacey peeling endless amounts of potatoes because he has been training him, ala Mr. Miyagi, to learn how to make a special truffle based dish. He also reveals that the reason Karen has been so cold to him, is because she was the one that wanted the job that Pacey got instead.
Joey arrives home to find Dawson waiting and he asks her to assure him that he made the right decision and that it will result in good consequences, but she says she can’t promise that and the two proceed to talk about his trip back home to Capeside.
Meanwhile, back at Capeside, Mitch returns home from getting some ice cream and drops it on the floor by accident. As Mitch goes to retrieve it, he steers off his side of the road into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
Dawson’s Trivia:
Blossom was played by John Driscoll. His biggest claim to fame is in 153 episodes of The Young and the Restless, and 210 episodes of Guiding Light.
Polar Bear was played by Richard Reed, and with only 6 credits to his name, it’s worth mentioning that he appears in an episode of Surface.
The Long Goodbye:
Written by: Tom Kapinos
Directed by: Robert McNeill
Original airdate: October 31, 2001
Synopsis:
As friends and family return to Capeside to mourn Mitch’s passing, Gail shuts herself away to grieve while Dawson tries to be strong and keep his emotions in check. Some like Jen worry about what to say to Dawson, while Jack advises her to find her own way to be there for him, and Pacey wonders if Dawson would want him there with Joey telling him that Pacey would appreciate it if Dawson was there for him if his father ever passed away.
As Dawson wanders into his room and sits down he recalls a memory of Mitch giving him his first video camera when he was 12. Joey comes in and talks with him but he asks her to look after Lily while he delivers a suit to the funeral home for his father to be buried in.
After the funeral, Jen talks with Dawson and tells him that for a lack of better words she is just going to hold him and tell him she loves him, hoping it will make him just a little bit less sad.
Later Joey wanders outside and looks up at the window she used to climb through into Dawson’s bedroom and has a memory of when Mitch put up the ladder for her years before so that she would be safer than climbing up the trellis.
Gale and Joey talk some with Joey telling Gale that she appreciates the time she has had with them, knowing her own family was very different from the Leery’s, but knows that Mitch loved Gail very much.
Dawson finds Pacey has come to pay his respects and they talk about the time Mitch caught them trying to smoke. They laugh and as Dawson heads back inside, the two former best friends hug.
Inside the house, a friend of Gail’s from school shows up and tries asking Dawson how he is grieving and that it is very important to deal with these feelings. Dawson doesn’t handle the suggestion lightly, being triggered by a phone call that sets off Mitch’s voice on the answering machine and subsequently he breaks it in frustration.
Grams and Gail have a moment together while Joey talks with Dawson and he reveals that he feels Mitch’s death was all his fault, because if he hadn’t dropped out of school, there wouldn’t have been a reason for Mitch to be out on the road driving that evening. Joey tries to convince him otherwise but to no avail, lamenting that the last time the two talked, Mitch had said how disappointed he was in his son. Despite Joey wanting to try to comfort her friend, Dawson said he prefers to be alone for the moment and she leaves, distraught.
Later Joey runs into Pacey and tells him how Dawson has been blaming himself for Mitch’s death, resulting in Pacey going to find Dawson. As he arrives he has his own memory pop up of when Mitch taught him to drive. Pacey then proceeds to drive Dawson to the scene of the car accident. He explains to him what Deputy Doug’s findings were and that the other car involved in the crash was actually responsible since that driver was a man who worked a double shift and had fallen asleep at the wheel, causing the accident. The revelation is little comfort to Dawson however and they drive back home.
Gail later has her own memory of Mitch pop as she remembers her late husband building Dawson’s crib before he was born. Dawson finds her and she starts talking about how sad she is that Lily will never get to know Mitch the way Dawson did, but Dawson says that won’t happen because he plans to talk about him as much as possible. At dinner that evening, Gail realizes they are out of milk and breaks down, remembering that was the reason Mitch went out on the fateful night of the crash. Dawson volunteers to go get some and while paying, the cashier, Mr. Brennan expresses his condolences. He continues on by saying he knew that Mitch was proud of Dawson by the way Mitch’s face would light up when Dawson’s name was mentioned, and how Mitch said that his son was brave, had a romantic streak, and that he was proud to have known him. Dawson takes it all in, heading to his car and finally breaks down crying.
A final memory pops up of Mitch taking a picture of the family, shortly after Lily was born. As they smile and laugh, the picture is shot, and Dawson heads off to meet his friends while Gail heads inside with Lily, and Mitch surveys his home and surroundings, happy and content with his life, and heads in after them.
Dawson’s Trivia:
Robert McNeill has a career as a writer, producer and actor going back to the early 80’s. His big credits as an actor are in the live action Masters of the Universe in 1987 as a character named Kevin Corrigan, and in Star Trek: Voyager as Tom Paris, who started as an ensign and was promoted to Lieutenant through the course of the show. He later voiced the character for Star Trek Online and Star Trek: Lower Decks. He’s appeared in many other shows, but we’ve seen him in the Quantum Leap episode “Good Night, Dear Heart”, where Sam was a coroner trying to prove a womans murder. He also worked as a director on Voyager and Enterprise, Dead Like Me, Chuck, and Warehouse 13 to name just a few. Most recently he’s directed episodes of The Orville and Resident Alien.
Jodi Thelen was Susan. She played the lead in a movie called Four Friends (a group of four friends form strong bonds while in high school in the early 1960s, then desperately cling to that love during the turbulent counterculture movement and social upheavals that marked the end of the decade), a lead in Twilight Time (elderly man returns to Yugoslavia to raise two grandchildren after 20 years in America), and A Doctor’s Story (a doctor frustrates his family in his fight to prove that an elderly man is not senile). She was also in The Wedding Singer as Kate, a couple of racy movies called Playback and One Night Stand (scantily clad women in the movie box cover), and was a lead in Duet with Matthew Laurence (Not Lawrence), in which a couple meets and fall in love at first sight with the series detailing their ups and downs. The last thing she did was 3 episodes of Twin Peaks as Maggie.
Why did John Wesley Shipp (Mitch) Quit Dawson's Creek?
Source
These are Shipp's own words from an interview.
Now, when Kevin Williamson left the show and the parents were increasingly de-emphasized -- that led to my leaving.
At the end of the four seasons and the kids were going to be going to college, I saw the handwriting on the wall. We would be standing in the background with Lily and waving at Parents Day and I really had no interest in doing that.
So when they wanted to renegotiate our contact, I set my price really high.
Paul Stupin came to me in Los Angeles and said if we gave you the money you were asking, would you come back and kill the character? I kind of budged my heart for a minute but I have to tell you, it was a great decision. It was the perfect time to leave. I did indeed get two beautiful episodes that made me feel like the previous four years had been about something.
And imagine for me -- what a sendoff?! And what a tribute to Mitch. I mean, I really got to tie up each relationship. I got a retrospective of what Mitch had been and, as you say, what he had meant to everyone and went out on a real high note. It worked out really well for me.
Shipp on DAWSON'S CREEK's Characters and Dialogue
If you can think back to before DAWSON'S CREEK exploded on TV, there was nothing like it.
I mean, yeah, you had BEVERLY HILLS 90210, but it was completely different in tone. The kids were beautiful and -- ours were, too -- but theirs were popular and sexy and with it and hip, slick and cool and, let’s face it, didn’t have the brain power of our characters.
What was interesting about DAWSON'S CREEK: The kids were not hip, slick and cool. They were a little bit on the outside.
Joey Potter, that whole story, not exactly your typical teen queen there with the problems in her family. Pacey Witter’s father being a drunk. And that Michelle Williams' character being a real outcast at the beginning. And even Dawson, his mom cheating on his dad and experimenting with an open relationship. There really was nothing like it.
And, also, I noticed the language that these kids were using. I thought, wow! We were even criticized for that. We’re writing up to the youth audience; we’re not writing down to them. Why would you criticize that? Isn’t that a good thing? You mean the dialogue is too smart? That’s a criticism? But, anyway, how did I come to do it -- I didn’t really look at it as a teen drama.
Essential Playlist:
Classic Creek Critiques:
The forums were dismal this week with very little discussion of the episodes, mostly asking about where to find recordings, questions about things that make me wonder if people were actually watching the show, celebrity sightings, and dumb theories trying to link in 9/11 and a romance between Pacey and Gail.
Howard Rapport says: I like the idea that Pacey gets to be what appears the strong one for once, when he goes to Dawson and says "It's not your fault". I think this is going to help re-establish the bond that pacey and dawson have, and we may see them become friends again. Also, the whole pacey/joey thing is nice. I'm glad their not harping on the past and are actually moving forward...however Pacey's appearing a little too dense for me at times (like in the kitchen talking to Danny....."Can't be taught, but it can be learned"...It makes perfect sense, but for some reason he's lost the "Dawson's Creek flare for using and understanding obscure things") and yeah, white truffles really are good.
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Lisa has a spoiler: so judging next weeks episode jens new boyfriend looks like hes seeing
someone else unless he plays it off as this person being his sister or cousin or something.
but i was beginning to like him and depending on what happens i might have to re think my opinion...... i dis like guys who cheat........
Dawn replies: Jen's BF is cheatin' scum and she gives him the boot. Just in time to
warm her bed for Dawson.
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